What's next for icons?

As android phones become more powerful you have way more opportunity to customize your device so it's as productive as possible. The ability to float icons and apps makes Android a unique mobile OS. Floating involved an app or widget being able to pop up as an active item over an app you are using. I've tried a couple floating icons.

The first one is Floating Notifications. +Tom Gray mentioned this one quite a while ago (here's the review) and was also an arena option for All About Android. I decided to try it a couple months ago and went from trial to purchased because it's that good.  The product matured quickly and now has themes as well as lots of individual options for apps. I especially like it for SMS and Hangout notifications but you can have anything pop up. I've set my FitBit to give me a popup notification when it has a low battery. It does work better with some apps than others.


Get it on Google Play


The most recent on is Floating Toucher which I found on my stream in a mention by +amarendra bandla . It's like Circle Launcher but a floating app. At first I thought - meh, I don't mind pulling down my notification screen to toggle services - then I checked it out and saw the possibilities. The icon will float over any screen and give quick assess apps and services. It comes with the settings, clear cache and lock screen as the default then you can add up to 4 additional shortcuts. It's in active development and requires 2.3 and up. Purchase to get more features like being able to use with a very transparent icon to create a screen hotspot. If I weren't already using Glovebox this would be a must have.


Get it on Google Play


Some users will find floating icons confusing or not very productive. After all you could really clutter up all your screens and apps by making too many things always on. Both the apps feature have free versions to try over time to see if they really are for you.

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